The next round of elections could spell diplomatic probs for the US.


The Islamic party dominating Morocco's electoral season has many faces — among them bareheaded young women in jeans, marketing students preaching the gospel of global markets and legions of the poor and disenfranchised.

The Justice and Development Party's cross-class, antiestablishment appeal could leave it the largest party in parliament after elections Friday. And that would pose a challenge to the secular monarchy, and its Western allies.

This resort-lined Muslim kingdom forms one front in the broader battle playing out between forces of moderation and extremism across the Muslim world. King Mohamed VI is the latest leader to face the dilemma of whether to co-opt the adherents of political Islam, oppress them, or leave them be and run the risk that they use democratic mechanisms to carry out a hard-line agenda — and ultimately threaten democracy itself.


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Good news for the US. They will retain their ally in N. Africa. But take a look at the voter turnout. Bet you will not see those figures in any speech about democracy in the ME.


RABAT, Morocco: Voters in Morocco deprived an Islamist party of an expected parliamentary victory, handing it instead to the conservative Istiqlal party, according to preliminary results announced Saturday.

The results of Friday's vote — marred by a record-low turnout of 37 percent — meant continuity for this North African kingdom known for its relaxed resorts and as an important U.S. ally in the Arab Muslim world.

In a surprisingly strong showing, Istiqlal, of the ruling government coalition, won 52 seats in the lower house of parliament, Interior Minister Mohamed Benaissa said. The Islam-inspired Justice and Development Party or PJD, whose growing strength in recent years had worried its secular rivals, had 47 seats.


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